Buzz
by amandajbruce
Summary: Buzz - a low, vibrating, humming sound, as of bees, machinery, or people talking. To Buzz - to make such a sound.


A/N: It's been a long time since I've seen the episode "Killing Me Softly With His Height," but I was thinking about it a while ago, and an idea sparked from Miley "buzzing in early again," which she apparently does often. Enjoy! (This is my first one shot in what feels like forever! It's kind of exciting for me. I've missed doing one shots.)

**Eighth Grade, First Semester**

"I have an idea," Miley said to Lilly somewhat out of the blue, materializing at her side on the beach as though she had been part of the sand the whole time.

Squinting in the sunlight, Lilly responded with, "About what?" instead of the "how much trouble is it going to get me into?" she wanted to throw out there.

"About Jake." Miley spat the words out, knowing they were opening wounds that hadn't yet quite healed between the two of them. It had only been a week since Jake had taken Lilly to the dance, using her to make Miley jealous. What had ensued was an argument that resulted in a food fight and a lot of hurt feelings. They hadn't spoken of it since deciding they were both over him.

"What about him?"Lilly asked flatly.

"Well, not just him. All guys." Miley's eyes were sparkling the same way they did when she came up with a plan that was sure to get them grounded by their parents.

"Okay?" Lilly set her magazine down, giving her best friend her full attention, though she was sure she was going to regret it.

"If we see a cute guy, and there's a chance we both like him, we just call dibs. Whoever does it first gets first shot."

"Dibs?" Lilly echoed with an eye roll. "Sure, if you think that's gonna work."

"Come on," Miley whined, sliding into a seat at the table where Lilly was sitting. "We have to have some system. We don't want to fight over guys. Not ever. Look at what happened."

"Okay," Lilly agreed, nodding her head, "but, how is this gonna work? I mean, we just shout it out when we see a cute guy?"

"Hmm... yeah, I guess we don't want to scare him away..."

The two girls sat in silence, thinking over the flaw in Miley's brilliant plan. Lilly opened her mouth a couple of times to say something, but changed her mind and closed it again almost immediately each time. Miley's eyes widened as Hottie Lamotti walked by, and she sighed, loudly, and gave Lilly a pointed look.

Lilly ignored the sigh, watching Gabe walk while she thought. A bee flew into her line of sight, the noise from its hum filling her ears, and she swatted it with her magazine. "I've got it!" Lilly exclaimed, jumping from her seat, finger pointed in the air, when Gabe was out of sight down the beach, and the bee was safely away. "We buzz in, like on a game show. That way, it isn't so obvious to everybody else. They'll think it's some sort of inside joke or something, right?" She smiled widely, finally getting into Miley's method, with a little help from the black and yellow insect. She sat down again, the wide smile turning into a self satisfied one.

"Alright, now you're thinking. Let's try it." Miley nodded enthusiastically, her hair not bouncing on her shoulders as much as it used to now that she had her dark curls straightened out.

"What, now?" Lilly's blue eyes scanned the area of beach around them. They were sitting outside Rico's Surf Shack, and the lack of cute guys in the area was a little depressing. "There isn't even anyone here that I'd want to buzz in for."

"Okay, next guy that comes out from the trail, just off the walkway up there." Miley pointed to the wooden planks that were laid out over the sand and up one section of rocks, wooden planks that would lead to a hiking trail if you went in one direction, or further down the public beach towards Lilly's neighborhood if you went in the other.

"But that could be anybody!" Lilly protested, hands bracing on the table, the pages of her magazine rustling in the wind, but she didn't notice.

"That's the point!" Miley argued. "This one is a test. It doesn't matter who it is."

"Fine," Lilly groaned, moving her hands to her chin and propping herself up on the table.

They watched, and they waited. There was a surprisingly large number of girls on the beach that day. Lilly shook her head, blond hair raining down around her ears from her ponytail that was coming loose, as she saw one group of bikini clad teenage girls after another walking along. Miley gave another sigh, this time one of frustration, and Lilly giggled.

She threaded her fingers through her ponytail and yanked out her hair tie, just as a distinctly male looking figure stepped from the wooden planks to the sand. She didn't even stop to think about what she was doing. It was a contest to see who could buzz in faster, right? And she was very competitive. So, she buzzed. She buzzed before Miley could even open her mouth.

"Wow," Miley said sarcastically, "that was pretty quick. Looks like I'm going to have to practice a little." She giggled then as the boy in question walked in their direction.

Lilly's only response was to roll her eyes and cross her arms over her chest, forgetting all about putting her hair back up. She let the blond strands cross in front of her eyes and tangle together. She wasn't going to fix it. Fixing it would only look like she was primping or something. And she was not, absolutely not, going to primp for him. Except that she couldn't see, so she tucked a few strands over one ear, then crossed her arms again.

"What's crackin' ladies?" He asked, trying to be smooth, and almost falling his way into the chair he pulled out for himself.

"We have a new system when it comes to boys," Miley answered brightly, giggling again as she added, "we're going to buzz in when we see a boy we like. We were just testing it."

"Oh, really?" Oliver Oken waggled his eyebrows and then examined his surroundings. "Who'd you test it on?"

Lilly groaned and told him, "the first boy to walk down here from the path."

She shook her head in agitation. She really didn't have to buzz in so quickly. She had seen who it was. She would recognize him anywhere. There was no need to even make a sound. It wouldn't have mattered anyway. Technically, she would have had dibs on him under the best friend code. She had known him as long as she could remember, long before she had ever met Miley, or he had met Miley. So, by default, Lilly had that claim if she wanted it. Not that she did. This was ridiculous.

Oliver laughed. "Which one of you lovely ladies buzzed in for me?" He looked back and forth between them, and by Miley's echoing laughter, and Lilly's piercing glare, he knew exactly who it was.

Lilly slumped down in her seat, cheeks burning. It had been instinct, that was all. It wasn't like she _liked _Oliver or anything. That would really be ridiculous.

**Summer Before Ninth Grade**

The second time Lilly and Miley put their buzzing sounds to the test was on Hottie Lamotti. Okay, obviously his name wasn't actually Hottie. That's just what all the girls in school called him. Even some of the guys. Gabe Lamotti had been swimming and surfing since he was able to walk. And it showed. Every girl salivated over him. And some of the guys.

It helped that he was nice and that he didn't laugh at all of the girls who made complete fools out of themselves in front of him, or some of the guys. He was an all around good guy. Maybe too good if you were being picky. A guy had to have a flaw or two, right?

Lilly had often thought that. She was perfectly content admiring him from afar, daydreaming about what it would be like if he rescued her on the beach a la the little mermaid, and they fell in love. Or maybe, they could bond over an appreciation for the same surf board, and then fall madly in love. But she didn't actually want to date him. Those were just harmless little fantasies. He was just one of those guys you liked to look at.

And for that reason, neither she nor Miley ever buzzed in when Gabe was around. There didn't seem to be any point. But one afternoon that was supposed to be boy free had Miley continually attempting to flirt with some of the older boys hanging out at the beach. Attempting and failing. And Lilly was getting sick of it. So, when Gabe walked by them, nodding a greeting on his way to get some water, Lilly buzzed.

Miley gave her a look of surprise, but she promptly buzzed the next three cute guys she saw without Lilly even getting the chance to notice they were there.

So started Miley's habit of buzzing in early. All because Lilly had been a little annoyed.

Of course, the buzzing sound could only be used sparingly, they decided, after that afternoon as well. Miley's buzzing in regards to three guys in a row had a few people asking her if she had developed some sort of weird disease. So the girls had to adjust their system. Sometimes they buzzed, sometimes they made a statement, and sometimes, there were even complicated hand signals. But, the system still held. Except for Miley continuing to buzz in early.

Maybe Lilly just didn't have the same eye for the male specimens that Miley had.

**Tenth Grade, Start of First Semester**

There hadn't been a whole lot of buzzing over the last year. For the most part, the two girls had very different tastes. They might have found the same guys cute a lot of the time, but Lilly discovered she didn't really want to spend more than five minutes with any of the guys that Miley had wrapped around her finger. They kind of made Lilly want to vomit up the fruit cup she usually had with her lunch in the cafeteria.

And right now, she was having a serious problem keeping said fruit cup down. Oliver was mooning, actually mooning, over Joanie Palumbo. Miley had shrugged her shoulders after the initial shock, figuring Oliver's interest in girls was so fickle, he would be on to someone new by the end of the school day. Seated at their usual table in the cafeteria, Lilly tuned out Miley's words about the guy she actually had buzzed in on that morning. She had been all hopped up on the love story she had been reading, and when she and Lilly both spotted a new guy, Miley had been the one to buzz instantaneously. Now, she was deciding she didn't find him all that cute after all.

Lilly couldn't say that she was surprised, but she also didn't care. And Oliver wasn't paying any attention to the conversation. He was still staring at Joanie, who was across the cafeteria, sneaking looks at him too. And Lilly was seething. The edges of her vision were clouded with red, her teeth clenching, her limbs actually trembling. She tossed her spoon down onto the tray, not able to stomach finishing the rest of her fruit cup.

And the thing that kept flashing through her mind was that Joanie wasn't the one who had buzzed in. Joanie shouldn't be the one he was looking at like that. It was some sort of violation of the girl code or something. But, again, it wasn't like she _had feelings _for Oliver or anything. It was just that... Oliver had been her friend first. And Joanie was the spawn of Satan. That's all.

**Tenth Grade, End of First Semester**

"Oh, now, he is cute," Miley said with a smile, and she promptly called dibs.

Lilly turned her head half heartedly. "Miley, I didn't even see him."

"You snooze, you lose, remember?" She cocked her head to the side and narrowed her eyes at Lilly. "You feelin' okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Lilly shrugged off Miley's concern and took another look around, eyes traveling across the guy her friend had decided was her next conquest. He was kind of cute, but he was too... smooth. He and the guy he was with easily could have their pick of any of the girls around them at the mall. And they were the kinds of guys who knew it.

"Okay, I'm goin' in. I'll be back in five."

"Fine, fine." Lilly waved her off and went back to examining the possibilities for her mother's Christmas present. "Okay, mom," she muttered to herself. "You want the all natural apricot scrub to go with those new slippers I got you for around the house, or should I get you something different, like this designer anti-aging moisturizer set that you can use everyday... including this stuff that can go under your makeup?"

"You should go with the apricot scrub," Oliver said from behind her, his breath tickling the back of her neck.

She jumped about a foot in the air, almost upsetting the little kiosk in the middle of the mall. "Jeez, Oliver! Don't sneak up on people like that!" She smacked him in the side for good measure, then crossed her arms and glared at him.

"I wasn't trying to sneak up on you!" He protested with a toss of his hair. "You were just concentrating really hard. And talking to yourself."

Instead of listening to him, Lilly focused her attention on Miley and the smooth operator she was trying to flirt with. Miley batted her lashes, and the guy smiled, said something funny, and as Miley giggled, he checked out another girl who was walking by. They chatted for a few minutes more, but Lilly knew that Miley had spotted his wandering eyes, and the conversation wasn't going to last long.

"I thought you guys were supposed to be shopping for Christmas presents, not scoping out cute guys." Oliver watched Lilly, not really knowing what else to do.

"He's not that cute," Lilly snapped back without thinking.

"Hmm... Miley buzzed in before you again, didn't she?" He gave her a knowing smile and Lilly rolled her eyes.

"Miley buzzes in for every cute guy. She doesn't even take a second to process anything about them. It's just, cute, and then buzz. She's always buzzing in early before both of us get a chance to see the guy..." She trailed off, her eyes meeting Oliver's. "I wouldn't have buzzed in for him anyway. He's not my type."

"How do you know?"

"I just know."

Oliver nodded, letting the subject drop, and as Miley walked in their direction, he said, "I'm gonna just go and get my mom's present. She's all I've got left. I'll meet you guys in the food court in like, an hour?"

"It's gonna take you an hour to get your mom a gift?" Lilly questioned.

"I'm allowing for long lines and snack time, duh."

Her eyes followed him as he bounded away and she smiled in spite of herself. He was such a dork. A cute dork though. "Buzz," she whispered, not loud enough for Miley to hear as she joined her, and then shook her head. He wasn't cute. He was Oliver.

"You get your mom something yet?"

"Uh, I've got to grab the apricot scrub. Just let me pay for it."

"Oooh, check out the hottie working the pretzel booth over there," Miley sing-songed.

"You can have him," Lilly responded, fishing out her wallet and handing some cash over to the sales girl.

"What? No more buzzing for Lilly?"

"Nah. Not right now."

Lilly took her bag from the girl, and her change, thanking her absentmindedly. Miley started chattering nonstop about the gifts she already had to send to family back home. And while normally, Lilly would be supportive, Lilly was busy thinking about the status of Oliver and Joanie's relationship. Were they even technically together still? They went out all the time, hung out at school constantly. Sometimes Lilly even forgot that Oliver was supposed to be her best friend, he wasn't around so much. But he hadn't referred to Joanie as his girlfriend in a while, and he hadn't said anything about what he was getting her for Christmas and he had been spending an awful lot of time hanging around with Lilly again over the winter break... Maybe they weren't together anymore.

Lilly shook the thoughts from her head and forced herself to tune in to Miley. For the next hour, she was all Miley's. And then, it happened again.

"Who's the hottie with Oliver?" Lilly asked as they made their way into the food court. The words had come from her mouth unbidden, but it didn't even matter, because Miley was there first. And though Lilly might have been glaring and making snarky remarks about it, Oliver was the guy she walked over to talk to, letting Miley have her moment. They did have a system after all.

Her heart just wasn't in this whole buzzing in early thing anyway. She had been the first one to buzz in on the first official test of the system, and, she was pretty sure she hadn't made an attempt at getting in that quickly since. Maybe her brain was trying to tell her something. Maybe, just maybe, she really did _like _him. Just a little bit. As more than a friend.

And then Lilly listened to him as he informed them that he could never go out with sweet little Sophie because her feet were too big. And she decided most definitely that she _did not have feelings for him. _Not one bit. Because he was way too shallow. Sophie's feet weren't even that big. Of course, Lilly couldn't help noticing that her own feet were about four sizes smaller than Sophie's.

But that was only because Oliver had pointed it out. She didn't agree with him or anything. And there were no feelings. None. Joanie could keep him.

Except she kept hearing this sound. It was like bees. And it wouldn't go away.


End file.
